MINOR INVENTIONS
AND
PATENTS IN PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
If the reader has been patient enough to have reviewed the preceding
pages, the impression may have been formed that the notable inventions
referred to represent all that is worth while to consider in this great
field of human achievement. It would be a fallacy to entertain such a
thought, for the little stars out-number the big ones, and the twigs of
the tree are far more numerous than its branches. The great things in
life are comparatively few and far between, and the bulk of human
existence is made up of an unclassified mass of little things, sown like
sands along the shore of time between the boulders of great events. So
also in invention is its warp and woof made up of a multitude of little
threads behind the gorgeous patterns of meteoric genius. Every hour of
the day of modern life is replete with the achievements of invention.
Look around the room, and there is not a thing in sight that does not
suggest the material advance of the age; the books, the furniture, the
carpets, the curtains, the wall paper, the clock, the mantels, the house
trimmings, the culinary utensils, and the clothing, all represent
creations of this century. So full is the daily life of these things,
and so much of a necessity have they all become, that their commonplace
character dismisses them from conspicuous notice. Take the most
matter-of-fact and prosy half hour of the day, that at the time of
rising, and see what a faithful account of the average man’s everyday
life would present. The awakening is definitely determined by an alarm
clock, and the sleepy Nineteenth Century man rolling over under the
seductive comfort of a spring bed, takes another nap, because he knows
that the rapid transit cars will give him time to spare. Rising a little
later his bare feet find a comfortable footing on a machine-made rug,
until thrust into full fashioned hose, and ensconced in a pair of
machine-sewed slippers. Drawing the loom-made lace curtains, he starts
up the window shade on the automatic Hartshorn roller and is enabled to
see how to put in his collar button and adjust his shirt studs. He
awakens the servant below with an electric bell, calls down the
speaking tube to order breakfast, and perhaps lights the gas for her by
the push button. He then proceeds to the bath, where hot and cold water,
the sanitary closet, a gas heater, and a great array of useful modern
articles present themselves, such as vaseline, witch hazel, dentifrices,
cold cream, soaps and antiseptics, which supply every luxurious want and
every modern conception of sanitation. His bath concluded, he proceeds
to dress, and maybe puts in his false teeth, or straps on an artificial
leg. Donning his shirt with patented gussets and bands, he quickly
adjusts his separable cuff buttons, puts on his patented suspenders,
and, winding a stem-winding watch, proceeds down stairs to breakfast. A
revolving fly brush and fly screens contribute to his comfort. A cup of
coffee from a drip coffee-pot, a lump of artificial ice in his tumbler,
sausage ground in a machine, batter cakes made with an egg beater,
waffles from a patented waffle iron, honey in artificial honey comb,
cream raised by a centrifugal skimmer, butter made in a patented churn,
hot biscuits from the cooking range, and a refrigerator with a well
stocked larder, all help to make him comfortable and happy. The picture
is not exceptional in its fullness of invented agencies, and one could
just as well go on with our citizen through the rest of the day’s
experience, and start him off after breakfast with a patented match, in
a patented match case, and a patented cigarette, with his patented
overshoes and umbrella, and send him along over the patented pavement to
the patented street car, or automobile, and so on to the end of the day.
Some of the minor inventions are really of too much importance to be
passed without comment. The _cable car_ is a factor which has cut no
small figure in the activities of city life. The first patent on a
slotted underground conduit between the rails, with traction cable
inside and running on pulleys, was that to E. A. Gardner, No. 19,736,
March 23, 1858. Hallidie, in San Francisco, in 1876, directed his
energies to a development of this system, and brought it to a degree of
perfection and general adoption that made it for many years the leading
system of street car propulsion. To-day, however, it represents but a
decadent type, being largely supplanted by the superior advantages of
electricity.
_Passenger elevators_ constitute one of the conspicuous features of
modern locomotion. Without them the tall office buildings, hotels, and
department stores would have no existence; the Eiffel Tower would never
have been dreamed of, and the expenditure of vital force in stair
climbing would have been greatly augmented. The passenger elevator has
for its prototype the ancient hoist or lift for mines, but in the latter
half of the Nineteenth Century it has developed into a distinct
institution--a luxurious little room, gliding noiselessly up and down,
actuated by a power that is not seen, and supplied with every appliance
for safety and comfort, such as governors, safety catches, automatic
stops, mirrors and cushioned seats. The principle of the screw, of
balance weights, of the lazy tongs, and other mechanical powers have
each found application in the elevator, but steam, hydraulic power, and
electricity constitute the moving agencies of the modern type. The
patent to E. G. Otis, No. 31,128, January 15, 1861, marks the beginning
of its useful applications.
Of close kin to the elevator are the _fire escape_, _dumb waiter_ and
_grain elevator_, each of which fills a more or less important function
in the life of to-day.
What more ubiquitous or ingenious illustration of modern progress than
the _American stem winding watch!_ Up to the middle of the century all
watches were made by hand throughout. Each watch had its own
individuality as a separate creation, and only the privileged few were
able to carry them. In 1848 Aaron L. Dennison, a Boston watch maker,
began making watches by machinery, and the foundation of the system of
interchangeable parts was laid. A small factory at Roxbury, Mass., was
established in 1850, which four years later was moved to Waltham. In
1857 it passed into the hands of Appleton, Tracy & Co., and was
subsequently acquired by the American Watch Co. As presenting some idea
of the great elaboration involved in this art, it was estimated a few
years ago that 3,746 distinct mechanical operations were required to
make an ordinary machine made watch. A single pound of steel wire is
sometimes converted into a couple of hundred thousand tiny screws, and
another pound of fine steel wire furnishes 17,280 hair springs, worth
several thousand dollars. The absolute uniformity and perfect
interchangeability of parts in the American watch have been obtained by
substituting the invariable and mathematical accuracy of the machine for
the nervous fingers and dimming eyes of the old time watchmaker, and the
American machine made watch, discredited as it was at first, stands
to-day the greatest modern advance in horology.
_Friction Matches._--In 1805 Thenard, of Paris, made the first attempt
to utilize chemical agencies for the ordinary production of fire. In
1827 John Walker, an English druggist, made friction matches called
“congreves.” In 1833 phosphorus friction matches were introduced on a
commercial scale by Preschel, of Vienna. In 1845 red phosphorus matches
(parlor matches) were made by Von Schrotter, of Vienna, and in 1855
safety matches, which ignited only on certain substances, were made by
Lundström, of Sweden. Prior to the Nineteenth Century, and in fact
until about 1833, the old flint and steel and tinder box were the
clumsy and uncertain means for producing fire. To-day the friction match
is turned out by automatic machinery by the million, and constitutes
probably the most ubiquitous and useful of all the minor inventions.
Step into any of the great department stores and the genius of the
inventor confronts you in the _cash carrier_ whisking its little cars
back and forth from the cashier’s desk to the most remote corners of the
great building. The first of these mechanical carriers adapted for store
service was patented by D. Brown, July 13, 1875, No. 165,473. Not until
about 1882, however, was there any noticeable adoption of the system,
when practical development was given in Martin’s patents, No. 255,525,
March 28, 1882; No. 276,441, April 24, 1883, and No. 284,456, September
4, 1883. Go to the lunch counter, and the _cash register_ reminds you
that the millenium of absolute honesty is not yet realized. The _bell
punch_ on the street car and the burglar proof safe with its
_combination locks_ are other suggestions in the same line. The first
_fire proof safe_ is disclosed in the British patent to Richard Scott,
No. 2,477, of 1801. The _time lock_, which prevents the safe from being
opened by anyone except at a certain period of daylight, was invented by
J. V. Savage, and was covered by him in United States patent No. 5,321,
October 9, 1847. The practical adoption of time locks began about 1875
with the operations of Sargent, Stockwell and others, and to-day they
constitute one of the most important features of bank safes and vaults,
and represent a marvelously beautiful and accurate example of mechanical
skill.
The Otto _gas-engine_, and the Ericsson _air-engine_ are important
developments in power producing motors, and the improvements in
_pavements_ and in _street sweepers_ for cleaning them, contribute to
the cleanliness, sanitation, and æsthetic values of city life. The
_cigarette machine_, which continuously curls a ribbon of paper around a
core of tobacco to form a rope, and then cuts it off into cigarettes, is
an important invention in the tobacco industry, however doubtful its
hygienic value to the world may be. The _lightning rod_ has brought
protection to homes and lives, and the _incubator_ has become the hen’s
wet nurse. In agriculture, the reaper has been supplemented with
threshing machines, seeders, drills, cultivators, horse rakes and plows.
In the farm yard appear the improved carriage and wagon, the well pump,
the wind wheel, the fruit drier, the bee hive, and the cotton and cider
press. In the kitchen, the washing machine, the churn, the cheese press,
ironing machine, wringer, the rat trap, and fruit jar. In the house, the
folding bed, tilting chair, carpet sweeper, and the piano. In heating
appliances, steam and water heating systems, base burning and Latrobe
stoves, hot air furnaces, gas and oil stoves. In plastics there are
brick machines, pressed glass ware, enameled sheet iron ware, tiles,
paper buckets, celluloid and rubber articles. In hydraulics there are
rams, water closets, pumps, and turbine water wheels. In mining there
are stamp mills, ore crushers, separators, concentrators, and
amalgamators. In the leather and boot and shoe industry there is a great
variety of machines and appliances. The paper industry, with book
binding machines, and paper box machines, is a fertile field of
invention. Steam boilers, metallurgical appliances, soap making,
chemical fire extinguishers, fountain pens, the sand blast, bottle
stoppers, and a thousand other things present themselves in
miscellaneous and endless array. These are, however, only some of the
things which the limitation of space precludes from individual
treatment, but which are none the less important in making up the great
resources of modern life, and, for the most part, represent the
contributions of the Nineteenth Century not heretofore considered.
The observant and thoughtful reader finds just here occasion to inquire
the meaning of this great rising tide of progress which has so
distinguished the Nineteenth Century. It is largely due to the Patent
Law, which justly regards the inventor as a public benefactor, and seeks
to make for him some protection in the enjoyment of his rights. If a man
be in the possession of a legacy by the accident of birth, the law of
inheritance rules that it is rightfully his. The finding of a thing,
whether by jetsam, flotsam, or the lucky accident of a first discovery,
this also makes good his title, if there be no other owner. There is,
however, a right of property which is higher than all others, and in
which there is coupled with the possession of the thing the sacred
function of its creation. The right of a mother to her child is of this
nature, and like unto it is the right of the inventor to the creation of
his genius. In the last two centuries of the world’s history this right
has been recognized by an enlightened civilization, and provision made
for its enjoyment in the grant of patents, and if there be any right
more strongly entrenched than another in the eternal verities of equity
and justice it is this. Our first crude patent law was enacted in 1790,
but not until 1836 was the present system adopted. Our own and
comparatively new country has, therefore, not yet had a hundred years of
existence under our present Patent System, and yet to-day it outstrips
the world both in its material resources and in its wealth of patented
inventions. The accompanying diagram, Fig. 306, illustrates in a graphic
way just what relation the United States bears to the other leading
countries of the world in the matter of patents granted, and when it is
remembered that under our system a patent can only be granted for a new
invention, while in some of the other countries it is not essential to
the grant, the richness in invention of the United States, with its six
hundred and fifty thousand patents, can be better appreciated. This is a
greater number than has been issued by Great Britain and France put
together. Connecticut is the most productive State in invention in
proportion to its people, and Edison is the most prolific inventor. From
1870 to 1900 he has taken 727 United States patents, and there are from
twenty-five to thirty other American inventors each of whom has taken
100 or more patents.
[Illustration: TOTAL NUMBER PATENTS TO JAN 1^{ST.} 1900
(FOREIGN PATENTS FOR 1899, ESTIMATED)
RATE OF ISSUE OF U.S. PATENTS
FIG. 306.]
The year 1790 was notable in two events, the birth of our patent system
and the death of Benjamin Franklin. That grand old philosopher, with a
prescience of future greatness to come from the genius of the inventor,
is said to have expressed the wish before he died that he might be
sealed up in a cask of old Madeira and be brought to life a hundred
years in the future, that he might witness the growth of the world. Who
can tell what his emotions would be if he were with us to-day? It is
said, when he first saw the fibres of the string diverge, and the spark
pass from the cord of his kite, and the lightning was for the first time
obedient to the will of man, that he uttered a deep sigh and wished that
that moment were his last. To this poor knowledge of electricity he
would now have added all the wonders and powers of the telegraph, the
dynamo, the telephone, and the great modern electrical science; to his
primitive hand press he would have contrasted the Octuple perfecting
press, turning out papers at the rate of 1,600 a minute; his modest
type-setting case would be replaced by a great array of linotype
machines, and he would find several acres of woodland sacrificed to
produce the wood-pulp paper of a single edition of a New York daily.
Would he not realize indeed that truth is stranger than fiction, and
fact more wonderful than fancy’s dream!